


A Perfect Town

by aNonny_mouse



Series: Bad Things Happen [3]
Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Gen, Lotus Eater Machine, bad memories, hometown, unreality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25374910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aNonny_mouse/pseuds/aNonny_mouse
Summary: A town where monsters can live on the surface, complete with long lost family friends, a shining reputation, and a human at his side. It’s truly Asriel’s dream.
Series: Bad Things Happen [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837585
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	A Perfect Town

Asriel opens his eyes, slowly reintroducing himself to touch and sight. He’s safe in a cocoon of blankets and pillows and stuffed creatures. Morning light filters in at the window and paints the room a subdued gold. It’s his room, the one he shares with his sibling. He sees them secure in their own bed against the opposite wall, just a mess of dark brown hair propped onto a pillow.

His room, his desk, his dresser. He knows they belong to him but it’s slightly unreal, like how you know information in a dream that wouldn’t make sense in real life. He shakes his head. He’d just left a dream behind. He knows it from the lingering memories that slip into the corners of his mind. He can’t wake from a dream into another dream, so this must be real. After a few more seconds, he’s certain, and it seems silly to have questioned it at all.

He checks the time on his nightstand- 8:03. It’s Saturday so it’ll be a while before they wake up. He leans over the drawers beside his bed to pull out some clothes for the day, and his eyes catch on the picture frame next to his alarm. It’s a photo of his family at QC’s. He’d just received his acceptance letter to college and they wanted to show him off to the town. They were always proud of him for one thing or another, but that time he felt proud of himself too. All his extracurriculars and essays and charity work had paid off and he’d get a chance to see life outside this little town.

Not that he didn’t like it here. It was comfortable. He was well known and well liked, and of course he enjoyed spending time with his loved ones, but there’s only so much to accomplish here. Stagnating is like falling behind, and he’d hate to disappoint everyone.

He realizes the clothing in his hands and returns to what he was doing before. He takes the outfit and heads downstairs to change in the bathroom. Immediately upon leaving the room, he’s hit with the scent of something sweet. It grows with each step until he’s face to face with his mom, sat serenely at the table.

“Hey,” he greets. “Whe-" re’s dad, he nearly asks. He must still be half asleep to ask something like that. Dad’s- he tries to fill in a location and his mind thinks of thrones and

Flowers. That’s right, the flower shop. Yeah, it would be weird for him to be here ever since, well you know.

“Yes Asriel?” she brings him back to the present and questions his unfinished sentence.

“Uh, what’s up?” he decides to substitute instead.

“Just enjoying the morning. It’s a lovely day today.”

“Haven’t seen much of it myself, but I’ll take your word for it.”

She makes a good natured smile, “Well then I’ll give you time to come to your own conclusion. You can tell me what you think over dinner tonight.”

“What are we having?”

“I haven’t decided yet. Have you got any plans?”

“Nothing really. Might stop by the Holidays to give Noelle back her sweater. It should have all the chocolate stains out by now.” He puts a hand behind his head in an abashed manner as if he were to blame for the mess.

“Ah thank you for taking care of that. And if you don’t have anything else, you can help me with dinner tonight.”

“Sure thing. Let me know if I should pick anything up.” As he speaks, he turns to open the bathroom door.

He walks in to a comfortable looking bedroom with a sleigh bed. A hand and a happy voice from behind urges him forward.

“Come on quick, before I spill.”

He hurries further into the room and out of the way. A blonde doe follows in the door with cookies in hand and a couple glasses of milk. She’s a few years younger than him and as close as family.

“These are way hotter than I thought,” She rushes to put the treats down on a nearby vanity, “You know, you could have held some too.”

Asriel looks to his own hands then laughs it off. “Heh, I would have, but you were just so excited, you snatched them all before I got the chance.”

“Hmm, are you saying I’m faster than the school’s star track member?”

“Apparently when it comes to sweets and secrets, yes.”

“Ah which brings us back to our order of business. You wanted to talk about Kris?”

Kris. His brain can’t properly hold the word and has an even harder time matching it to an image. He imagines the vague shape of a human child, striped sweater, brown hair. The face changes, the colors change. He remembers their sleeping form in bed this morning and that’s about as close as he can get.

“Um, Kris right. I’m…” his face bores holes in the ground in concentration as he tries to conjure up what he was supposed to say about them.

“Wait is it something that serious?” Noelle prompts in concern.

“No no it’s not that. It’s…” he pauses longer than decides, “I’ve forgot.”

“What!” she pushes him over “You tease! How could you say you had some secret to talk about and you forgot?”

“It must not have been all that important. Hey!-“ she playfully punches him a few dozen times and they both fall into a laughing mess.

“Alright, that’s enough,” he puts up his hands in surrender, “Come on, the cookies shouldn’t be scalding anymore. Let’s eat.”

Noelle agrees with this course of action and releases Asriel from the floor.

He pulls himself up and takes a couple steps down the street, wagon behind him. It’s heavy with the weight of a human passenger, mostly silent company. He had already tried to convince them to walk the few blocks home, but why turn down a perfectly good wagon? One day he’ll leave both them and the wagon at school and they’ll be forced to take their own way back, but regrettably he doesn’t see this happening anytime soon. When it comes to Kris, he’s a bit of a pushover.

He walks his usual route home, stopping to chat with neighbors loitering in their lawns.

Catty’s dad tries convincing him to go to his alma mater school and Asriel very kindly explains that he’s already enrolled in the state university.

“Ah good on you, Doug. Getting real ahead of things. It’s a real shame though, you’d make a fine Barrymore Bobcat!”

“Daaad, no one wants to go to that tiny place. Azzy’s got the right idea flying out to a big city.” Catty chimes in with her opinion. “Omg, Azzy! I’m so totally jealous. I’d just Love to be a trendy college cat but like schools care so much about grades and papers, I’d just die being around all those nerds. Not you though! You’re my totally favorite nerd.”

“Guess you can be a trendy hometown cat instead.” He reassures.

“Omg, yess! This is why you’re my favorite.”

Kris is not very amused by this interaction. They survey the street while they wait, catching the rare sight of a reclusive ghost edging across the road. Eventually the ghost notices their stare and pauses like a caught animal. When Kris makes no motion to engage with them, they rush the rest of the way home unbothered.

This draws their eye instead to the alligator next door. She talks to her mother on their lawn, apparently having a very funny conversation as she stops to laugh every few minutes.

After a particularly loud outburst, Catty snaps at the two of them, “Omg don’t you ever shut up? We’re trying to have a conversation here.”

“Uh so are we? You’re not like the only person in this town.” Bratty responds.

“I know but you are soo loud. You’re like, if a megaphone was a person. Why don’t you just go inside? We’d totally all still hear you but at least you’d be muffled.”

“This is our house. We can stand outside if we want. Why don’t you go inside?”

“No we were out here first. You just saw us and wanted to do the same thing as us like always, like, why are you so obsessed with me?”

Asriel decides this is a good time to quietly slide him and Kris away from the feuding families. There’s really no stopping them anytime soon.

“I’m surprised those two are rivals,” he muses once they’re a safe distance away, “They’re so similar. I guess, it was either best friends or worst enemies.” They arrive at the house.

Asriel turns to the wagon and finds a pile of seedlings and soil instead of a human.

His dad passes by. “Just set those in the corner by the door. The seedlings will go upstairs.”

Asriel carefully sets the plants aside to unbury the bags of soil at the bottom of the wagon. He helps set those inside first then follows his dad with the seedlings.

“Why up here? Shouldn’t you keep them in the shop?” Asriel enquires.

“Well I don’t know how well these will turn out. It’s a flower that’s not used to this climate, but I’ve heard they’re resilient little fellas. If I can keep them alive for at least a couple months then I’ll think about moving them to the sales floor.”

“A foreign plant, huh? I think you can do it. You’re pretty talented with flowers after all. I’m curious what they’ll look like.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. And I still have the seed packets right here. They should have a picture on them if you want a sneak peek.” He takes a packet from his pocket and hands it over.

Asriel looks at the flower on its cover and pauses. It’s a simple golden flower, six petals, white face. Something about it makes him uneasy.

“It comes in a variety of colors. I decided to test out one of each to start with. Would make a nice bouquet don’t you think?” He fans out six other packets to show off the options.

“Yeah. It’ll look nice.” His delivery falls a little flat. He brushes aside some receipts and letters to make room for the plants on the table, and an overdue bill falls to the ground.

He picks it up off the tile floor, and when he stands back up there’s a bouquet on the table. He looks down again and the paper in his hand is a get well soon card.

“Thanks for that Azzy, I really appreciate the sentiment.” Mr. Holiday speaks from his hospital bed.

“Of course, we’ll always be here for you,” Asriel responds.

“Oh don’t get all sappy on me. It’s enough coming from your parents. You shouldn’t have to worry about a worn out buck like me.”

“But Rudy,” he says with utmost sincerity, “You are so deer to us.”

“How dare you?” He asks in exaggerated upset, “How could you torture an old man like that, with one of the oldest jokes known to Holiday kind?” He laughs anyways, quickly breaking out into a nasty cough.

Suddenly Asriel sees a different room. Rudy coughs in an armchair as Asgore shuts the door.

Asriel watches them spread the dust.

Asriel sees empty homes.

Asriel makes empty homes.

Asriel sees so much dust.

Asriel sees his own dust.

Asriel hears a cough.

Asriel hears screams.

Asriel screams.

He’s at the lake. His dad sits comfortably, pants pulled above his knees so he can wade his legs along the shore. He stares up at the sky.

Asriel stands there and he feels the breeze. He sees the setting sun. The sky tinted blue, orange, and pink. It reflects off the water, mixing into a deep purple in places.

His dad sighs beside him, “I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

The water laps against the floor, back and forth like a steady breath. He slows his own to match it and he hears the wind mimic him. It’s hollow and round as though sliding through a tunnel. It’s the sound of the barrier.

He opens his eyes. It’s Sunday morning. He looks to the side and sees his sibling in their own bed, a blanketed lump of dark brown hair. He lets his dreams fade to the back of his mind and begins another day.


End file.
